Just checking in. Is there anything that our representative on the Florida Home Inspector’s Coalition is willing to update to the membership. Any new news on the status of the coalition, any up coming laws or bills that may affect the home inspector licensing law?, anything to report? Looking for the latest information that can/will affect my/our businesses.
It appears they’ll all be at www.nachi.org/florida.htm on Friday.
Oh good, they can tell us nothing in person then.
I’m curious… what do you expect them to report on? The law passed, the governor signed it, the DBPR established all the rules already, and the grandfathering period is ending.
The cake is baked. No?
The cake is baked. Now they are putting the icing on it. Senator Bennett has filed SB396 on 1-11-2011 that has language in it that is harmful to our industry. His bill has an amendment to the home inspector licensing law that will allow Div. 1 contractors to automatically qualify for a home inspector license. See the following excerpt from his bill and specifically lines 129 and 130:
112 Licensure.— 468.8314
113 The department shall certify as qualified for a license (3)
114 by endorsement an applicant who:
115 (a)Is of good moral character as determined in s.
116 468.8313; holds a valid license to practice home inspection
117 services in another state or territory of the United States,
118 whose educational requirements are substantially equivalent to
119 those required by this part; and has passed a national,
120 regional, state, or territorial licensing examination that is
121 substantially equivalent to the examination required by this
122 part;
123 Possesses a one and two family dwelling inspector (b)
124 certification issued by the International Code Council or the
125 Southern Building Code Congress International;
126 Has been certified as a one and two family dwelling ©
127 inspector by the Florida Building Code Administrators and
128 Inspectors Board under part XII of chapter 468; or
129 Possesses a Division I contractor license under part I (d)
130 of chapter 489.
Clearly this language is harmful to us, the industry, and the very consumer that the law was allegedly designed to protect. I would think that this development would be something worthy of the coalition reporting back to the rank and file inspectors. Also, I would hope that our “coalition” is planning on fighting this development as it is clearly harmful to professional inspectors that abide by industry standard ethics provisions.
The cake is baked. Now they are putting the icing on it. Senator Bennett has filed SB396 on 1-11-2011 that has language in it that is harmful to our industry. His bill has an amendment to the home inspector licensing law that will allow Div. 1 contractors to automatically qualify for a home inspector license. See the following excerpt from his bill and specifically lines 129 and 130:
112 Licensure.— 468.8314
113 The department shall certify as qualified for a license (3)
114 by endorsement an applicant who:
115 (a)Is of good moral character as determined in s.
116 468.8313; holds a valid license to practice home inspection
117 services in another state or territory of the United States,
118 whose educational requirements are substantially equivalent to
119 those required by this part; and has passed a national,
120 regional, state, or territorial licensing examination that is
121 substantially equivalent to the examination required by this
122 part;
123 Possesses a one and two family dwelling inspector (b)
124 certification issued by the International Code Council or the
125 Southern Building Code Congress International;
126 Has been certified as a one and two family dwelling ©
127 inspector by the Florida Building Code Administrators and
128 Inspectors Board under part XII of chapter 468; or
129 Possesses a Division I contractor license under part I (d)
130 of chapter 489.
Clearly this language is harmful to us, the industry, and the very consumer that the law was allegedly designed to protect. I would think that this development would be something worthy of the coalition reporting back to the rank and file inspectors. Also, I would hope that our “coalition” is planning on fighting this development as it is clearly harmful to professional inspectors that abide by industry standard ethics provisions.
Thank you Mr. Taylor. This is what I thought the “coalition” was to do. Once again, I ASSUME. My fault again.
So the cake is apparently been taken out of the oven, yet we are blind to the ongoing of the law. It takes a savy inspector to find these things are report them to the coalition? I thought it was to be the other way around. Once again and ASSUMPTION on my part.
This exact stuff was mentioned at the LAST meeting and I was assured we would be informed about these items so they we can try and head them off at the pass instead of trying to UNDO what has been done.
Once again…failure! That coalition is freaking useless.
It’s called dirty politics with the builders. They scratched each others backs, the politicians and builders.
One reason might be because he is an Electrical Contractor when he isn’t being a State Senator. This is not the first time Sen Bennett has been involved in the HI licensing issue here in FL.
It’s very clear he does not know his *** from his elbow.
Following his logic, why not allow all div 1 contractors to automatically qualify for an electrical contractor license, plumbing contractor license, HVAC contractor license, and a roofing contractor license?
Better yet, why not allow all Div.1 contractors to automatically qualify for state building inspector licenses as well. that way - they could do their own municipal code enforcement inspections on their own work- approve it- save the state and jurisdictions money on code enforcement?
This “fix” is to correct what was taken out of their original HI bill back when it was being pushed by the Contractors, their lobbiests and FAR. This is what they have been shooting for all along if you were around when the current law was being shoved down everyone’s throat. The legislatures took out their exemptions just before it got shoved over the last hurdles and got signed by Governor Crist. No one liked it, including those who fought the hardest to get a HI licensing law in place because it took away their position at the last minute.
Yes, I know that- but - wasn’t removing the contractor and repair clauses the right thing to do? If yes, what has changed now?$
Of course it was the right thing to do but no one really thought they were going to give up trying to control this business. They just had to wait until the law as written had run its course (and Crist is not Governor anymore, that that would make any difference. He signed the thing against a lot of people’s advise).
The Bill doesn’t permit a contractor who gets an HI license to offer repair services on defects uncovered, so can someone explain how a contractor who gets a home inspection license ends up with market advantage over any other licensed home inspector? Are you worried that this Bill will lead to contractors using their HI licenses as lead generation tools? Is that the main objection?
Politics is politics it’s all dirty…but here is a little history……back in the year 2000 there was a uproar by Florida home builders made through Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA) that they did not like unlicensed, untrained folks inspecting their products. It was “the builders --FHBA” who lobbied the state hard to implement some type of licensing requirements for home inspectors.
Mark Cramer from Indian Rocks Beach, Fl who at the time was national president of ASHI along with other home inspection associations at the time then got involved instituting a “sunrise study” or to show discernible harm to the public. Of course there was none found, yet it was the efforts of FHBA ( the builders) that got the ball rolling during the 2001 spring legislative session to get a laws passed that would require home inspectors to pass an examination showing they meet a minimum standard and get licensed. As we all know it took a while longer but that is where we are at today.
I do know that being a member of FHBA that when the current HI licensing provisions went down there was some grumblings by “Conspectors” that were not getting grandfathered in as home inspectors and everybody else and there brother was. Hence FHBA lobbied back to get their members grandfathered and I think that is where all of this is coming from.
Don’t kill the messenger :shock:
Well, let me put it this way. I personally am not worried but the facts of life is this. There is the law, as written and then there is reality. Having been a resident of FL since 1973 I know how things are done here. If a contractor wants to go do an inspection and “just happens” to get some work on the side, no one is gonna notice or do anything about it. It has been that way since Col. Sanders was a corporal and extremely doubtful that will change.
No. Where is the standards of practice? Is there to be a code of ethics? What does the chosen few plan to do about this new senate bill? Why do we find this stuff out from the membership and not the leadership. Wonder why disention in the ranks occurs? Somebodys sleeping at the wheel as we carreen down this bumpy road, and we are passengers along for the ride. It may in fact be that we are all helpless, but I would like to be helpless and informed.
Nick,
You are mistaken. The law, as currently written, does allow contractors/inspectors to offer and do repairs on homes that they inspect. See the following excerpt from the law:
468.8319
Prohibitions; penalties.
—
(1)
A person may not:
(f)
Perform or offer to perform any repairs to a home on which the inspector or the inspector’s company has prepared a home inspection report. This paragraph does not apply to:
1.
A home warranty company that is affiliated with or retains a home inspector to perform repairs pursuant to a claim made under a home warranty contract.
2.
A certified contractor who is classified in s. 489.105(3) as a Division I contractor. However, the department may adopt rules requiring that, if such contractor performs the home inspection and offers to perform the repairs, the contract for repairs provided to the homeowner discloses that he or she has the right to request competitive bids.
As you can see, professional home inspectors must abide by industry standard ethics provisions but licensed contractor/inspectors do not have to abide by those same provisions. As currently written, we have two sets of rules in our home inspection law. One set of rules for professional home inspectors and another set of rules for the contractor inspector.
Clearly this provision, provides a market advantage to the contractor inspector. We are already seeing the contractor inspector offering “free” and/or loss leader inspections in an effort the gain the work (translated as $) on the back end. The contractor inspectors are using home inspections as a lead generator. With that said, most professional inspectors cannot complete with “free” or loss leader inspections. I hope this helps to clarify the situation that professional inspectors are in here in Florida.